The nice thing about this blog is that I can be as brutally honest as needed. I can attack you and make statements about laziness and flab because guess what? I'm included in the readership. These comments are about me as well as you, and I'm not going to go easy on myself. We need RESULTS! Not gonna get 'em by telling ourselves what we want to hear.

I took a walk for a couple of miles at lunchtime today. I need to do it frequently, but I noticed things that you don't see from your desk, workstation, car, wherever you happen to be. I saw the rampant overindulgence in graphic display. It became surreal as I walked. I saw people, some probably a hundred pounds overweight, waddle out of the building, waddle to their cars, and trundle off to gorge themselves on a 1500k calorie lunch at one of a dozen fast food or other eating places in the area. 1500 doesn't sound like much. Probably 3/4 of your daily need.

Throw in a 400 calorie bagel with 200 calories of cream cheese for breakfast, a big "coffee" (milk, lots of sugar, caramel, with some coffee thrown in) on the way to work, a handful of cookies when you get home, a piece of your co-worker's birthday cake, a bowl of ice cream and/or a bowl of potato chips in front of the TV while you watch "Biggest Loser", and you're at 4,000 calories NOT INCLUDING YOUR DINNER! Guess what?.........Eat that way one day and you're ok. Eat that way everyday and you are GONNA BE F........A.............T!!!

I walked past a fast food chicken place (No, not that one, just for the record), and saw a line of cars lined up behind the drive through. I suddenly realized.........that's nothing more than a trough! Have you ever been to a farm where pigs are raised? Aside from smelling really bad, there's something else that stands out. When the food comes, slop, grain, miscellaneous scraps, garbage, whatever, they all come running and squealing for their turn at the trough. As long as you throw food of any kind in there, they'll keep gorging and grunting until it's gone. This line of cars is no different. We don't have to expend any energy to obtain nourishment now. Is it a wonder that the country is getting fatter by the minute? Two things have the potential to change this, and one is unimaginable to us. A catastrophe of such magnitude that the food supply is seriously interrupted would reduce our waistlines, but at what price? Kids would go wanting for nutrition, people who are in marginal health would suffer.

The other thing that can change it is ...........YOU. One meal, one step (literally) at a time. I am now announcing the greatest diet in the history of the world.....it doesn't cost you fifty bucks a month plus prepackaged food. It doesn't require meetings. It is "THE TWO WORD DIET" soon
NOT coming to a bookstore near you. OK 4 words if you count the alternative..........ready?.............here it is...................... (drum roll simulated here).................................CALORIE DEFICIT. You're ingo's gotta be less than your outgo. The opposite, (which is really easy by the way) is CALORIE SURPLUS. You eat more that you use, so you store it. You're FAT. You've been doing "CALORIE SURPLUS" to the point that you need your own zip code. Time to use your body's paleolithic metabolism to clear out the storehouse.

How you want to do it is up to you. Don't go extreme without a physician's ok. Just keep track of your caloric intake (and I mean ALL OF IT), calculate your caloric need, and keep the intake less than the need by either reducing the intake, or increasing the activity (hopefully a reasonable amount of both).

Don't believe the old saw "One cookie a day less will lead to (X# of pounds lost in the next year. .........................B.S.

If your caloric need is 2500/day, and you've been taking in 4000, well, one less cookie will mean that you'll gain weight a little more slowly than you would've with the cookie. Don't expect to lose weight unless you eat below your need level. Don't go too far below, or your body will react by shutting down to conserve energy due to a perceived starvation situation.

I like to use a rule of thumb that you need about 13 times your bodyweight per day. That's not totally accurate, and will vary from person to person, and according to activity level, but it's an OK guide, and it generally works for me.

Different people find what works for them. I know that, for me, it works to keep a food log. I use About.com "Calorie Count", and it seems pretty easy to keep track. You have to track EVERYTHING, however. Don't cheat or you will have bad results. Every drink, every peanut, cracker, mayonnaise on your sandwich...........EVERYTHING. It will surprise you how quickly the calories rack up. You will find yourself looking for healthy low cal alternatives, and passing up the co-worker's birthday cake.

Fortunately, although our bodies haven't evolved much since Ogg, we have developed our intelligence and skills. We have the ability to manage weight in this high-tech, physically non-demanding world, but it is necessary to be really pro-active in order to do it. Go get in touch with your Ogg.